Movie notes: ‘Resident Evil: Afterlife’ a no-show

Ali Larter (left) and Milla Jovovich star in “Resident Evil: Afterlife,” which opens Friday without being screened for critics.

When George Clooney shows up instead of Jason Statham, you know it’s an unusual Labor Day movie weekend. Maybe Hollywood finally got the memo that, with school already started in lots of places and the economy sucking, plenty of folks stay home instead of having a last summer road trip.

Unfortunately, THIS weekend looks like Labor Day weekends of yore. We have exactly ONE mainstream movie opening Friday, and it’s not being screened in advance for critics. That would be the fourth “Resident Evil” movie, “Afterlife.” Assembling the movie-review pages in Friday’s Weekender ought to be fun.

Actually, I’ve been dreading this weekend for a long time  ever since I noticed “Afterlife” had it all to itself. After the first two chapters, “Resident Evil” (2002) and “Apocalypse” (2004), were panned by critics, the third, “Extinction,” opened unscreened in 2007. I figured “Afterlife” would follow suit.

I was right. Crap.

After a publicist blasted an email trumpeting the movie’s gala premiere in Tokyo last Friday, I replied, Oh, BTW, does this mean it’s being screened in time for opening-day reviews? Uh, no.

So unless some Japanese critic files a review and I can find a translator  or some American media outlet sprung for a trip to Japan for its critic (fat chance)  no review. The good news is, there should be more room for coverage of new indies, meaning the well-reviewed retro romance “Flipped” and the anti-nuke documentary “Countdown to Zero” should get full reviews instead of capsules.

Plus there may be room for my witty, insightful summer recap of winners and losers in print. (Yeah, right).

Anyway, the “Afterlife” distributor, Screen Gems, obviously doesn’t subscribe to the “couldn’t hurt/might help” philosophy of screening niche films, even those based on video games.

The fourth film in the zombie-virus franchise that began life as a PlayStation game in 1996 marks the return of its creator, Paul W.S. Anderson, to the director’s chair. Anderson has written and produced all four films and directed “Resident Evil” in 2002.

Of course, Milla Jovovich (Anderson’s wife) is back as Alice, who has led bands of survivors in a virus-plagued world while battling the evil Umbrella Corp., which was responsible for all the mayhem in the first place. “Afterlife” reportedly adds elements from the latest incarnation of the video game, “Resident Evil 5.”

It also adds a new wrinkle  3-D. And it was actually filmed in 3-D, unlike some recent offerings (“The Last Airbender,” “Piranha 3D”) that were shot in 2-D and retrofitted in post-production.

The synposis from Screen Gems:

“In a world ravaged by a virus infection, turning its victims into the Undead, Alice (Milla Jovovich), continues on her journey to find survivors and lead them to safety. Her deadly battle with the Umbrella Corp. reaches new heights, but Alice gets some unexpected help from an old friend. A new lead that promises a safe haven from the Undead takes them to Los Angeles, but when they arrive the city is overrun by thousands of Undead - and Alice and her comrades are about to step into a deadly trap.”

We’ll see if the few critics who do follow-up reviews are more impressed with “Afterlife.” They certainly haven’t thought much of the others. “Extinction” has a 22 score on the Tomatometer. The 2002 original and “Apocalypse” (2004) earned scores of 34 and 21, respectively. So I’m guessing no.

(Associated Press)

‘Afterlife” stars Milla Jovovich (left), Ali Larter and Wentworth Miller are greeted by enthusiatic Japanese fans before the Tokyo premiere last week. Larter is due this winter; her husband is writer/actor Hayes MacArthur. It’ll be their first child.